Heads up folks, this one will be slow goings for a bit. I have three kids and not enough money so I am trying to do things on the cheap.
I was in charge of a lean/5S project at work that required some tooling racks and a computer work station that would be both ergonomic and give the knuckle draggers in my shop as little space as possible to accumulate shop towels and other junk. Wood is out of the question in my mind when we are in a machine shop. I chose 80/20 for the material and got to work designing some things and pitched it to the boss. He loved it and ordered the material. After assembling it I figured the tooling rack was nearly a single tier stand as it was, and that sent me on a quest to build my own 80/20 extruded aluminum single tier. We recently (in the last couple years) made the switch from MK brand extrusion to 80/20 for our trade show displays for reasons unbeknownst to me. But we had a BUNCH of it in the show display area that was eventually all going to see the inside of a recycling plant. We are allowed to purchase materials headed for the scrap bin at fair market scrap value, so I decided to take an inventory of what we had lying around. After determining that a particular skid with a couple old machine guard doors had more than enough of what I needed I looked into what we were receiving for scrap aluminum. $0.30 per pound. There was 94 lbs of aluminum and I needed about 2/3 of what was there. There was also some plastic coated steel screen that goes for $0.05 per pound. So I asked for it all and the boss shot me a quote of an even $30 for the whole lot of it. I sawed it all up and got it drilled for assembly over the course of the following week poking at it from time to time in my spare moments. I do not as of yet have it fully assembled as I wait for hardware to show up but I do have some pics to share for the time being.
The first is of the material as I had received it. Second is after being sawed and drilled and bundled for easy transport. The third is of the extra material that may become the frame for my mill or perhaps some other project. That rusty modular shelving unit on my back porch is what I currently brew on. Trying to sexy up my ugly junk on a budget. This should be an adventure.
I was in charge of a lean/5S project at work that required some tooling racks and a computer work station that would be both ergonomic and give the knuckle draggers in my shop as little space as possible to accumulate shop towels and other junk. Wood is out of the question in my mind when we are in a machine shop. I chose 80/20 for the material and got to work designing some things and pitched it to the boss. He loved it and ordered the material. After assembling it I figured the tooling rack was nearly a single tier stand as it was, and that sent me on a quest to build my own 80/20 extruded aluminum single tier. We recently (in the last couple years) made the switch from MK brand extrusion to 80/20 for our trade show displays for reasons unbeknownst to me. But we had a BUNCH of it in the show display area that was eventually all going to see the inside of a recycling plant. We are allowed to purchase materials headed for the scrap bin at fair market scrap value, so I decided to take an inventory of what we had lying around. After determining that a particular skid with a couple old machine guard doors had more than enough of what I needed I looked into what we were receiving for scrap aluminum. $0.30 per pound. There was 94 lbs of aluminum and I needed about 2/3 of what was there. There was also some plastic coated steel screen that goes for $0.05 per pound. So I asked for it all and the boss shot me a quote of an even $30 for the whole lot of it. I sawed it all up and got it drilled for assembly over the course of the following week poking at it from time to time in my spare moments. I do not as of yet have it fully assembled as I wait for hardware to show up but I do have some pics to share for the time being.
The first is of the material as I had received it. Second is after being sawed and drilled and bundled for easy transport. The third is of the extra material that may become the frame for my mill or perhaps some other project. That rusty modular shelving unit on my back porch is what I currently brew on. Trying to sexy up my ugly junk on a budget. This should be an adventure.
